


the torture of small talk with someone you used to love

by gaygoroakechi



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: M/M, One Shot, canon compliant past, goro is a bit of a dick in this one since i see him as vindictive, not canon compliant - future, shido is mentioned, this is a standalone but there will be more, this is basically a two shot, trauma mention (?) its dubious but i think its There
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25558669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaygoroakechi/pseuds/gaygoroakechi
Summary: Akira sees Goro on a train. Chaos ensues.I blame Fall Out Boy for this.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 8
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1 (Akira's POV)

**Author's Note:**

> hi so i'm very new to this

It was 5:30 A.M., and Akira was on the train to his job at the 777 store for his Monday shift. The air on the train was musty, suffocated by the passenger smoking next to him. The handles jostled as the train screeched to the third stop of the early morning route, and a couple of haggard passerbys filed in, shuffling along the metal steps. As an elderly man sat down, Akira’s heart skipped a beat and stared at the familiar face behind the old man. Akira rubbed his eyes roughly with his right hand; surely he was just tired and was seeing things as a result of being overworked (that, at least, was a problem Takemi could help with). 

To the ordinary person, the man didn’t stand out much. He wore a faded grey jacket paired with black slacks and a nondescript scarf, and his shaggy chestnut hair covered some of his face, which was pointed downwards at the floor. Akira couldn’t make out from his position the color of his eyes, but he already had ascertained the color in question by that cursory glance alone. The man (Akira was intimately familiar with his name, but refused to accept the situation for what it was just yet) looked up from his inspection of the dirty floor and upon seeing Akira, his eyes - ruby red in color - widened and his pretty mouth parted in an “O”. Akira wanted to punch him, hug him, or maybe kick him. Maybe all three. 

“Kurusu,” He said, because of course even after all those years, Akira was still just ‘Kurusu’ to him. 

Akira tried to swallow the bitter lump in his throat and choked out, “It’s been a while.”

Gor- Akechi, smiled his old television smile and responded, “It has indeed. How is Tokyo treating you these days?” He continued to hold his stupidly placid expression as he asked the question. If Akira was unsure about whether he wanted to punch Akechi or not, he had definitely made up his mind now. 

“It’s been going fine, thanks. I work at a convenience store now.” The words were out of Akira’s mouth before he could even stop himself.

“Oh, is that so? What happened with Sakura-kun?” Akechi questioned, eyebrows raised theatrically. 

Akira resisted the urge to scream at him, ask him where the hell he’s been, drag out all the details of his ‘new’ life and cause a scene on the train, but settled with a “college happened. What happened to you?” 

Akechi’s eyes flashed for just a second, but he answered with a practiced ease. “I escaped. You didn’t really think I would let myself die in there, right, Kurusu?” 

Akira took a deep breath and tried to physically restrain himself from socking Akechi right then and there. 

“I-” the train dinged before Akira could get a word out, leaving him silenced over the tormenting sound of failure. Akechi grinned, signaling that it was his stop. 

The train doors scraped open, Akechi walked out, and Akira had never felt more alone in his life. He tried to ignore how there were more questions than answers now that Akechi was alive, and if what happened was real as he watched the person he once loved leave his life for the second time.


	2. Chapter 2 (Goro's POV)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> goro's POV of what happens on the train! this was vv fun to write and im planning on writing a reflection in both of their POV's of what happened in here + make another work based on this :3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same warnings as first chp! shido is mentioned in passing here however, and the engine room/metaverse shenanigans are alluded to - implied trauma (?)

It was 5:30 A.M., and Goro was on his way to his shitty job. The morning was sticky, a pale grey that paralleled Goro's monotonous and mind-numbing job at the accounting firm - a job so boring that he would rather crack open his skull than file another merger.

God, at least he didn’t have to work under that man anymore. _Anything_ was better than being under the control of someone else. This way, he had some freedom, even if it was on a fairly short leash. He was still being monitored by Sae and some other officers through check-ins time to time, but it was no longer a pressing issue that affected every aspect of his life. He no longer had calls from gravelly-voiced men telling him the names of the people he had to murder, and no longer had to worry about being followed by shadowed figures in dark suits in alleys.

He tried not to think too much about the past, to keep it out of his head and lock it away in a box under his bed, but sometimes the memories would flare up unexpectedly. Today, he had a certain thief on his mind - dark memories of smoking guns and fire pressing behind his eyes. It felt so real sometimes, like he was reliving that day. Goro tried to forget that time, to leave it for when he was in bed and nobody could see him curling up in himself trying to ward off the nightmares.

He tugged at his scarf, bringing it up to his mouth in the face of the biting cold. It was just his luck the _one_ day he didn't change into his warmer, more professional clothes, it was the coldest fucking day it had been all winter. Walking through the gate was a damn hassle today, too; his coat caught on the turnstile and he had to practically pry it off the metal.

_Whatever._

Goro took a deep breath, and made his way to the gateway where his train came. He busied himself by looking mindlessly at the route map, and when the train arrived only then did he look up.

The train doors screeched open, and immediately Goro realized that this must be a different train than the usual; this one was filthy and smelled like cigarettes and piss. He stumbled in behind a man who managed to plod up the steps at the rate of a toddler learning how to walk, and stomped on to the train. God. This train was disgusting. The floor was littered with candy wrappers and cigarette butts and _was that a broken glass?_

Goro made sure to glare pointedly at the person smoking ahead of him, and took a sharp inhale through his mouth, not wanting to breathe through his nose. He felt eyes burning into the back of his head like a hot iron.

He looked up quickly, and tried to fix a piercing glare at the offending person. The person in question was none other then _Akira fucking Kurusu._ Kurusu's face, which seemed to have thinned out a bit (what with the passing of a few years), looked like a deer in headlights at the sight of Goro, who felt weirdly proud that he had managed to be the cause of that expression. Kurusu still didn’t stand out much; he was wearing a grey t-shirt and jeans, nothing fancy. Goro supposed Kurusu wasn’t the type to get a high-end job that required a strict dress code.

Gone were the glasses that’d been ever-present. It was a strange look on him.

“Kurusu,” He said smoothly, trying to maintain some semblance of his old detective veneer. Goro was out of practice, but he still could switch back at will.

“It’s been a while,” is all Kurusu responded with, still looking like he’d swallowed a fly.

“Indeed it has. How is Tokyo treating you these days?” Goro asked, head rushing with the familiar joy of messing with Akira Kurusu - it’d been so long. He manages to keep up his blank expression, something that undoubtedly pissed Kurusu off.

“It’s been going fine, thanks. I work at a convenience store now.” Oh? Well, that certainly was new. Out of all of the jobs Kurusu had, Goro didn’t expect that one to be the one he’d keep.

Interesting. Very interesting, indeed.

Goro felt the rusted cogs begin turning in his head once again - a feeling he hadn’t felt in years.

“Oh, is that so? What happened with Sakura-kun?” Goro jabbed, making sure to raise his eyebrows just a tad too much to be sincere.

“College happened. What happened to you?” Kurusu snapped, gritting his teeth.

Hm. Just as curt as ever, but Goro seemed successful in getting under his skin this time. So Kurusu had gone to college, huh? Goro wondered idly what he’d majored in. Probably nothing useful, if he had come back to Tokyo and was working in a convenience store. Maybe he’d never left, and was working while doing his degree. Maybe it was Sakura who was in college, not Kurusu, and that’s what he had meant.

Either way, the last bit pissed Goro off, because it implied Kurusu had really thought he had died there. That Kurusu thought he had been six feet under, or that his corpse was still rotting away in the Metaverse.

“I escaped. You didn’t really think I would let myself die in there, right, Kurusu?” Goro bit back and finally allowed his mask to come off. Kurusu looked positively furious at his response, and was balling up his fists, taking deep breaths. His grey eyes were stormy, eyebrows furrowed.

It was so damn satisfying.

“I-” Kurusu started, but then the train alarm dings.

How convenient - it was practically perfect for Goro.

Goro finally let a smirk bloom across his face, and motioned with his hands that this was his stop. He tugged up his coat, and strutted out as the train doors moved open with a screeching moan. He tried not to look back at Kurusu over his shoulder, to not drink in his enraged expression as he left the train.

It had been rather interesting to see him again, after all this time.

**Author's Note:**

> cw for smoking mentions, violent thoughts/etc


End file.
